


You Bloody Well Didn’t—The Ban Ho Job

by crayonbreakygal



Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen, Humor, Prequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 21:27:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15324699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crayonbreakygal/pseuds/crayonbreakygal
Summary: "Victor? Now when was the last time you met a Victor?"  Sophie realizes a few things about both Eliot and Nate while they go over their first job together.





	You Bloody Well Didn’t—The Ban Ho Job

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is the fault of tumblr! There's a watch party going on right now. The first episode watch just happened not long ago. Someone posted gif's from the scene where the five of them are planning the con against Victor Dubenich. Nate wonders when the last time he'd heard the name Victor. Both Sophie and Eliot converse about their time in Vietnam. There has to be backstory to this. The fact that they all encountered each other over the years (The Rashomon Job in season three comes to mind), it was definitely plausible that Sophie and Eliot met up in Ban Ho. Here's a take on what might have happened. And I have to involve Nate if just to give it a little humor. Thanks for the plot bunny. Now off to finish a few WIPs and the nine, yes, nine fics I have open in Word.

You Bloody Well Didn’t—The Ban Ho Job

Takes place prequel and season one, The Nigerian Job

 

From The Nigerian Job, season one.

Nate: Victor? Now when was the last time you met a Victor?

Eliot: Vietnam. Town called Ban Ho Zay.

Sophie: Chinese border.

Eliot: That’s an odd thing for you to know.

Sophie: That’s an odd place for you to be.

 

 **Marriage:** The procedure for marriage is based strongly on Chinese traditions. A go-between is very important as they help propose the marriage to a potential bride.  Once this has happened, the groom’s family gives the bride a necklace and a bracelet to show their intentions - a kind of engagement.  For the wedding, the groom’s family must offer the bride’s family food and money, and give close relatives a chicken, a duck and a silver coin.  Once married, the bride is carried to her new house on the groom’s back, as if she walks her spirit will find its way back to her parents. 

 

“You give that necklace to me, I will break every bone in your body.”

Nate hadn’t realized that Sophie could be that violent, but by the look on her face, it wouldn’t be a first.  His shoulder still smarted when the weather turned, just like it had turned as he traveled, partially by foot, to this remote region in Vietnam. China was way too close for comfort, although it seemed like the village did have a few tourists in residence. 

“Dear, if we’re going to get out of here with our dignities intact, you have to take the necklace,” Nate side-eyed Sophie, begging her to realize what she’d done not two minutes before. The official before them was not taking no for an answer.  It did worry Nate that he had made some kind of faux pa that he could not fix.  All he knew was the official wanted him to give Sophie that damn fake necklace.

Sophie was there to sell a very valuable necklace. He was there to stop her.  The necklace was a part of a collection that some Chinese diplomat had insured with IYS.  Now it was missing. The only thing the two of them had between them was the cheap one that he now had dangling from his fingers.

“I wasn’t the one who stole the necklace.” Liar.

“But you wanted to. Now you’re going to help me find it. Or else.”

Sophie turned to Nate, looked at him, not wanting him to continue his tirade against her. This was all her fault. If she had just left well enough alone, he would have the necklace in hand, ready to hand it back to the diplomat, who had been literally breathing down IYS’s representative's neck in Hanoi right at that very moment. Nate’s feet hurt, his suit jacket was sticking to his back, and he wanted a damn drink. Sophie, of course, looked amazing and quite comfortable in her flowing, brightly colored dress.

“And if I find out who beat me to it, there will be hell to pay.”

“Ah ha.  So you were looking for that necklace.”

Sophie stamped her foot across his, hard.  He held in a yelp so as to not look weak in front of the official directly in front of them.  This guy thought, really thought, that they were in front of him to get married.  That was the furthest thing from his mind, although by the way Sophie was dressed, maybe it looked as if they were betrothed.

Sophie ignored him, attempting to listen to what the official was saying.

“He wants a chicken,” Sophie explained.

“A chicken?”

“To complete the ceremony, he wants a chicken. He says that the groom’s family gives close relatives gifts, such as a chicken, to get married.”

Sophie then attempted to explain to the man that they indeed were not getting married that day, or any other day for that matter.  Then she pointed to Nate’s finger that had a ring attached to it.  The official glared back at Nate, then took a rolled-up newspaper and swatted Nate over the head with it.

“Sophie, what did you tell him?”

“That you were already married.  I most definitely did not want to get married to someone like you, already married as you are, so I told him.”

“The necklace? Where is it?”

“I have no bloody idea.  I had it. I swear I had it.  It slipped through my fingers. I am sorry.  It was quite lovely.”

A five hundred-thousand-dollar necklace just slipped carelessly through her fingers.  On what planet?

Leaning down to whisper in her ear, he grabbed her arm to make sure she didn’t bolt before he got an explanation.

“I hold you responsible for stealing that necklace.”

Pushing him away, she pulled herself up, looking regal and a bit put out by his attitude.  She should be put out.  She just cost him a big win.

“Not my problem.”

 

Sophie had it. It was in her hands.  If she found out who that man was, she would most definitely tar and feather him.  That necklace was hers.  Some hick, backwater muscle without a braincell in his very well put together body had distracted her for just a second.  It had literally slipped through her fingers a mere hour before Nate arrived on the scene, not wearing appropriate gear for this type of terrain.  The foggy mist that had lingered in the morning hours had finally started to burn off, showing the lovely green hills off in the distance. It smelled so clean in Ban Ho, the village idyllic and quiet. So much for the exchange going completely off the rails with her Chinese contact, Victor.  The fact that she was charmed, if just for a moment, by some American with glasses and a nice body, would rankle for months.  Nate showing up was just the icing on the cake.

Then the lead official in the village thought they were getting married? Was it because Nate still had on one of those blasted suits or her attire?  Sophie hadn’t understood one of the words being said, having translated it to friend instead of mate.  The man was speaking so fast, she missed a word or two here and there.  Nate attempting to hand her a knock off of the necklace had made the man smile. That’s when he asked Nate for the chicken. Now all bets were off. They would have to scramble to get out of there with their dignities intact. She was not marrying this beast, on this day or any other day. He’d shot her, handcuffed her, tried to arrest her on plenty of occasions.  He’d even taken to taunting her, gloating when he won a round in the “she ran, he chased” game that they had started playing. This cat and mouse game had to stop. It was ruining her reputation.

As much as Sophie would love to embarrass Nate and accept the necklace to see how far she could push him, the real necklace was getting further and further away from her at that very point in time.

Turning and smiling at him, Sophie stomped on his foot again, which she knew was very sore, then reared back and struck him with her fist.  As quickly as she could, she raced down the street, skirt billowing as she did.  She thought later that she probably did look like a bride on the run as it were.

Shouting for her driver to start the car, she looked back to see Nate limping toward her, moving faster than she thought he could.

“Move, move,” she yelled at the driver, throwing more money into the front seat so that he knew she meant business.

Nate disappeared quickly as they got further away from town. Now she could pick up the trail of where her “assailant” had taken off to with that blasted necklace.  She’d find it, charm it out of the man’s hands, then hand it off to the buyer’s agent, Victor. That was if she found it.

 

Eliot Spencer. It was him.  His hair was a bit shorter then, he was a bit leaner, but the glasses didn’t disguise him one bit.  She should tell Nate that she would not work with this scoundrel, this thief who almost ruined her reputation by stealing that necklace from her so many years ago.  Victor had been very put out about losing his prize, but she made it up to him by stealing something else of value, no questions asked.

Nate’s little smirk told her that he had figured it out way before she did. Bastard. What she wouldn’t do to stomp on his foot again, just to remind him that neither one had retrieved that necklace.  Eliot had bested both of them that day. Now he was sitting there, chomping on popcorn, ready to take down that awful man who had conned them out of those airplane plans.  Sophie had told Nate she wouldn’t miss this for the world. Now with Spencer involved, she really wanted to see where this was going. 

Wait? He knew Victor? Now she could put that two-timing bastard on her shit list too.

 


End file.
